"Environmental Reform: The Next Generation Project," a day- long workshop focusing on the future of environmental policy over the next 25 years, will be held on campus Saturday, Sept. 21. Organized by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, the workshop will build upon the findings of 14 separate research teams that met during the past year on topics ranging from land-use issues to ecosystem protection, technological innovations, and incentives for good environmental practices.
The workshop will focus on new theories, strategies and tools for delivering more effective and efficient environmental protection. "The environmental policy debate in this country has run aground, and we intend to refloat it with fresh thinking and new directions," says Daniel C. Esty, the center's director, who has joint faculty appointments in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies F&ES and the Law School.
"Environmental Reform" will be held 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. in the Law School's Levinson Auditorium, 127 Wall St. Afternoon breakout sessions will focus on: environmental issues and perspectives redefined; critical sectors for environmental policy; and the search for new tools and strategies. A reception will follow the workshop 5:30-7 p.m. in the Law School faculty lounge. The public is invited.
About 250 people have been involved in preliminary meetings in preparation for the workshop. The 14 teams were spearheaded by leaders from business, nongovernmental organizations and academia, each of whom contributed a chapter to The Next Generation compendium. Major portions of the compendium will be released at the workshop with the goal of contributing to the debate about environmental reform during this fall's state and federal election campaigns. The full report will be published as a book early next year.
"We are stepping up to the plate to fill the environmental policy void by seeking the help of experts throughout the country and the world," says Professor Esty, who was a deputy assistant administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during the Bush administration. "Our goal is to develop a new way of thinking that can serve as the framework of environmental policy for the next 25 years."
The team leaders include John Turner, president of the Conservation Fund in Arlington, Virginia; John Urquhart, vice chairman of the board of Enron Corp. in Houston; Elizabeth Dowdeswell, executive director of the United Nations Environmental Programme in Nairobi; Charles Powers, president of the Institute for Responsible Management; Emil Frankel, former commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation; and Bruce Guile, director of the Program Office at the National Academy of Engineering. Professors from Carnegie Mellon, the University of Minnesota and the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard head up other policy teams.
"The project will go beyond the traditional academic mission with a substantial outreach effort to make the ideas known in communities across the country," says F&ES Dean Jared Cohon, who will join Law School Dean Anthony Kronman as a speaker at the workshop.
Yale professors have played a prominent role in the project, both as leaders and participants. In addition to Dean Cohon, team leaders include John Gordon, former F&ES dean and the Pinchot Professor of Forestry; Carol M. Rose, the Gordon Bradford Tweedy Professor of Law and Organization; E. Donald Elliott professor adjunct of law; and Todd Strauss, assistant professor of public policy and management science at the School of Management.
The internal steering committee is composed of F&ES faculty members Marian R. Chertow, Daniel Esty, Reid Lifset, Bradford Gentry, Jane Coppock and William Ellis. Other Yale participants have come from the School of Nursing, the department of epidemiology and public health in the School of Medicine, and the Office of Cooperative Research. Yale trustees William Reilly and Frances Beinecke serve on the project's 15-member advisory board, which also includes Yale alumni Joan Z. Bernstein, Edward Strobehn and Fred Krupp.
Major project support has come from the Avina Foundation, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, GE Fund, German Marshall Fund, Hughes Foundation, the Association of American Railroads and the ERQ Educational Foundation and the McKnight Foundation.
For more information, contact project director Marian Chertow, or project administrator Janet Testa at 432-6197, e-mail jtesta@minerva.cis.yale.edu